If you are shopping/window shopping, what are the certain items that always catch your eye? The things that you are drawn to? You may just have to pick it up and gaze at it or run your fingers over it, or smell it or you may just have to buy it.
Me - bowls, tumblers, sheets, storage containers, pens, shoes/boots/sandals, jackets, scented anything (candles, wax melts, etc), comforters & quilts - I know I’ll come up with more.
Any time I shop somewhere that has fabric, I end up halfway convincing myself that I could/will really take up sewing and might make wonderful things with all those lovely patterns and textures.
I come to my senses eventually. I’m not going to buy it without a specific project in mind. Which doesn’t mean that I never buy it- just that I don’t buy it on impulse.
Also, chicken coops. There’s a farm store near me that has loads of adorable chicken coops on display. The coops are expensive and it wouldn’t be practical for me to get chickens at the moment, but I always have a moment of fantasizing.
When I first moved into this neighbourhood I severely coveted all my neighbours porches. It’s leafy area with big old trees and lots of Victorian and older homes with beautiful columned porches. Lovely details, pretty potted plants, etc. When walking my dog I’d admire how different, but wonderful all these varied porches are.
A lot of older cars from the 50s and 60s. Don’t know why, but the design and lines from about '57 to '69 really appeal to me. Given an unexpected windfall, this is something I might actually buy.
A generator…or, possibly, a solar power station. It’s an ongoing joke between my wife and me that, despite never having been without commercial power for more than a couple hours during the last ten years, I want a stand-by generator. Again, the total time we have been without power in the last ten years probably doesn’t total more than eight hours. We don’t have any special need for continuous power…I just want one. I price them on a regular basis and have considered every type, including a whole house natural gas unit. The only thing that stops me is that, deep in my heart, I know it’s a useless waste of money.
Puppies and dogs are another one for me - especially if I see someone with a dog that’s the same breed as one of my dogs, I will chase them down, pet the dog and ask questions. ANY puppy will get a second look from me and a scritch.
I have a generator at home, complete with a dedicated outlet, etc. I have never started it up. Our outages are usually a few hours. If we have a longer outage we light a fire in the fireplace and rough it.
I had a generator at work, same deal, if the power was out for over an hour we close and go home. I sold that generator.
All that said, a buddy of mine has a beautiful, huge generator that is set up to come on automatically when needed. Any power outage he has is seamless, just a flicker of lights.
I’m at the point in my life where I can afford pretty much anything I really want, and have most of the collectibles I’ve ever desired. There are some pieces of equipment that I would like - such as a small CNC milling machine, but whenever I think about buying them, I always come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to just have a short-run CNC house make the parts for me.
But, there is one object that a friend has that I really, really like. I wouldn’t exactly say “covet,” but it is one of the very few possessions that someone I know has that I think is incredibly beautiful and unique. I would never buy it, because it would seem too unimaginative and imitative. I give my fried huge props for purchasing it two decades ago:
Neither do I; I pull it all out once every few weeks to set up a small layout on the dining room table, and run trains for an hour or two. Not sure that I’ll ever build a permanent layout, but I still enjoy the trains.